Afternoon Briefs: Judge blocks Biden’s deportation moratorium; Biden orders private prison phaseout
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Federal judge blocks Biden’s deportation moratorium
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton of Texas has blocked President Joe Biden’s moratorium on many deportations. Tipton ruled Tuesday in a Texas lawsuit claiming that the 100-day moratorium violated a pact with the state by the Trump administration. Tipton said he was granting a two-week temporary restraining order because of a substantial likelihood that the moratorium was arbitrary and capricious. (The Washington Post, Law360, the Texas Tribune)
Biden orders end to private prison contracts
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order requiring the U.S. Department of Justice not to renew contracts with privately operated prisons. The order says privately operated prisons consistently underperform federal facilities with respect to correctional programs and resources. “We must ensure that our nation’s incarceration and correctional systems are prioritizing rehabilitation and redemption,” the order says. (@CNBCnow tweet, CNBC, the executive order)
Counterclaim alleges ‘anti-competitive tactics’ by Thomson Reuters
Legal research company ROSS Intelligence has filed a counterclaim alleging that Thomson Reuters engages in “anti-competitive tactics” to protect its dominant market position. ROSS Intelligence is a defendant in a Thomson Reuters lawsuit claiming that it scraped Westlaw content to speed up development of its artificial intelligence-based platform. ROSS Intelligence announced in December that it was shutting down because of the ongoing copyright infringement suit. (Law.com, Law360)
